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Human Nature
Fine Line Features


8.0

based on 30 reviews
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for sexuality/nudity and language

Starring Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto, Robert Forster, Mary Kay Place, Miguel Sandoval, and Toby Huss

A philosophical burlesque, Human Nature follows the ups and downs of an obsessive scientist, a female naturalist, and the man they discover, born and raised in the wild. (Fine Line Features)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Charlie Kaufman
DIRECTED BY:	Michel Gondry
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 10, 2002 Theatrical: April 12, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Both deeply weird and charmingly dear.

Newsweek Devin Gordon

Kaufman's new script isn't as inspired as "Malkovich." It's a precious little concoction -- the B-plus work of a madcap genius.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A hoot, or at least a collection of delightful hootlets hung on a short, frayed line.

Slate David Edelstein

The characters are much less finely tuned and the climax is a botch, but the French-financed film is often a riot, and the sensibility is all there.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Pure unadulterated animal fun.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Fresh and often very funny, and it makes its point that when our native urges conflict with social norms, the former shall give in to the latter, or else.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A treat for aficionados of oddball movies.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie has nowhere much to go and nothing much to prove, except that Stephen King is correct and if you can devise the right characters and the right situation, the plot will take care of itself -- or not, as the case may be.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The result is a satisfying and original picture.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Nature lacks a little of Malkovich's freshness, but that's just about all it lacks.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

You'll laugh a lot, but not without a sense of animal desperation.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Human Nature's zigzag ingenuity wears out some time before the farce bounces slowly to an uneven conclusion. For all its highfalutin title and corkscrew narrative, the movie turns out to be not much more than a shaggy human tale.

Boston Globe Renee Graham

It's just weirdness for the sake of weirdness, and where ''Human Nature'' should be ingratiating, it's just grating.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

In truth, I didn't care much for it, while respecting it a great deal. It's self-consciously childish and "innocent," and everything is overdrawn to cartoon dimension.

Film Threat Ron Wells

What was needed was either a Stanley Kubrick, or, well, the Farrelly Brothers. Instead we get warmed over Spike Jonze. Still, a little watered down Spike Jonze has to be entertaining some of the time, so this isn't a total loss.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

The second movie by "Being John Malkovich" writer Charlie Kaufman is even weirder than his first.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie is too cute to take itself too seriously, but it still feels like it was made by some very stoned college students.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

After some promising leaps, bounds and swings through a fascinating jungle of possibility, Charlie Kaufman's movie misses an all-important creeper.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The best stuff in Human Nature comes early, while the movie is still spry and daring --Then the film runs out of ideas, repetition sets in and so does boredom.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Feels forced and awkward, as though it's trying too hard to be weird, culty and profound.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Every single frame of this film is as cute, slick, and snappy as the adorable little mice who end the movie with a gag right out of "Babe: Pig in the City."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie never gets off the ground. Kaufman's script is never especially clever and often is rather pretentious.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Tries for both civilized wit and primitive joy -- and mostly misses both.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Charlie Kaufman's clever screenplay bears many traces of the same brand of originality and eccentric imagination that graced his work on "Being John Malkovich," although even at an hour-and-a-half the conceit is stretched almost too thin for audience sustenance.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Should have been more polished, and less tame.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

An overemphatic, would-be wacky, ultimately tedious sex farce.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Characters remain stuck in their cliche profiles, and the direction -- by music video specialist Michel Gondry -- doesn't improve matters.

LA Weekly John Powers

Although a few moments are hilarious, this would-be romp remains laboriously earthbound when it should be swinging gaily through the trees.

Los Angeles Times John Anderson

A goofball movie, in the way "Malkovich" was, but it tries too hard.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Feeble, vapid picture.